Lew Walt

Lewis William "Lew" Walt (16 February 1913-26 March 1989) was a Four-Star General of the US Army who served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Biography
Lewis William Walt was born in Wabaunsee County in Kansas on 16 February 1913. Walt enlisted in the Colorado National Guard in 1930 and he became a Bachelor of Science at Colorado State University in 1936. That year, he was made a Second Lieutenant in the US Marine Corps. By 1942, he was a captain and was sent to join the 1st Marine Raider Battalion. He fought on Tulagi, Guadalcanal, and in New Britain, and after the December 1943 Battle of Cape Gloucester on New Britain, the Allies named a ridge "Walt Ridge" in his honor. He became a Lieutenant Colonel and returned to the United States in 1944. During the Korean War of 1950-1953, he was awarded the Ulchi Medal with Silver Star by South Korea's government.

In June 1965, he was made the commander of the 3rd Marine Division during the Vietnam War and he led a strategy of "Combined Action Programs", where US and South Vietnamese troops collaborated to take out rural Viet Cong troops. In 1965, there were 87 secure villages; two years later, there were 197. In 1967 he returned home and was made Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps in 1968. He retired in 1971, and he died in Gulfport, Mississippi on 26 March 1989.